The Texas House of Representatives has voted to enact a complete ban on consumable products containing THC. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider says the vote came after a two-and-a-half-hour debate Wednesday night that started as an effort to regulate hemp-based products, rather than prohibit them.
The version of Senate Bill 3 that emerged from a House committee was an extensive rewrite that aimed to regulate and tax hemp products but leave many of them legal. But Representative Tom Oliverson upended the table with an amendment that restored the bill to its original form.
“As a physician, I cannot in good conscience support a system where Texans self-medicate with unregulated, inconsistent and highly potent intoxicants. These substances are not medicine. They are psychosis-inducing, overdose-prone chemicals masquerading as relief.”
The amended bill passed the House by a vote of 95 to 44. It has one more reading in the House, before it goes back to the Senate for final approval. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took to social media to thank Oliverson and Speaker Dustin Burrows for supporting the ban. I’m Andrew Schneider in Houston.
